102 possible, «that form of life which He, as the Son of God, accepted in entering this world».”2 The source of Christ’s salvifi c mission was His chaste and poor life in obedience to the Father. “Anything else: words, deeds, signs were the expression and consequence of this triple power of Christ’s evangelical identity.”3 The more we are united with Christ and His radical way of life by the evangelical counsels, the greater is the sanctifying and redeeming power of our consecrated life. Thus, the principle value and strength of the Congregation does not lie in its structures, regulations or works, but in the people united with Christ and making His evangelical way of life present. People are the Congregation’s greatest treasure (just like the Church and the whole world), especially those people whose passion is to love God and to follow Christ in accordance with the charismatic vision revealed to the Founder by the Holy Spirit.4 All of the activities of both the individual members and of the entire Congregation must invariably come from unity with Christ, poor, chaste, and obedient to the Father. This unity is achieved thanks to the grace of God, through religious consecration, individual and communal prayer, the sacraments (especially daily Eucharist and regular confession), prayerful reading of the Word of God, adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, ministry, and deeds of mercy. When sent to serve, religious order members who do not possess an intimate, personal unity with Christ may become social activists or cult administrators, but not the disciples and apostles of Christ. The fi rst and foremost aspect of each founder and each community’s charism is its Christo-centric dimension.5 It must be learned before anything else, assimilated before anything else, and then lived out by the religious community and its individual members. Scrutinizing and imitating Christ’s entire life, each founder of an institute or a society, ponders in a unique manner a selected aspect of the mystery of our Savior thanks to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This aspect becomes his starting point and the key to making his own synthesis of Christ’s life and mission, as well as to delineating the charism and mission of his congregation.6 In Fr. Papczyński’s case, the most important aspect seems to be the mystery of 2 VC, 16; LG, 1. 3 K. Wons, Rozwój i zamieranie instytutów zakonnych. Kryteria rozeznawania, Kraków 2008, s. 31. 4 “What must be avoided at all costs is the actual breakdown of the consecrated life, a collapse which is not measured by a decrease in numbers but by a failure to cling steadfastly to the Lord and to personal vocation and mission,” VC, 63. 5 In his Testament Two, our Blessed Founder entrusts the Congregation to Jesus Christ and His Virgin Mother Mary, as the “true and only Founders, Guides, Protectors and Patrons of this little Congregation of the Immaculate Conception, Assisting the Deceased.” However, a few paragraphs further, he adds: “I leave my likeness for the curious to look at, but the image of the life of my Lord, Jesus Christ for [the religious] to follow.” T II 9. 6 Cf. K. Wons, Rozwój i zamieranie instytutów zakonnych, dz. cyt., s. 24-35.
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